If you ever read trade magazines, you’ve probably seen the phrase “…areas in which Linux needs to grow to…” washing down articles that would otherwise promote some open source software. One such article made me bite my lip at work the other day, and I couldn’t wait to get back here and voice my opinion… no… fact.

Fact: Desktop Linux is better at package management.

If you’re a desktop Linux user, you know the ease at which software is generally installed. If you’re not, ask one, and they will tell you. In most any modern, easy-to-use, distro, you simply open your graphical package-management utility, search the software you want, check a box, and click on ‘apply’. Phew… tough one. I often hear statements like “track down dependencies,” and it drives me crazy because this is done for you by your package management system.

Let’s take a moment to compare the package management utilities for Windows and Ubuntu. Windows has an ‘Add/Remove Programs utility. Ubuntu has an Add/Remove Programs utility. The Windows utility removes programs. The Ubuntu Utility also removes programs, but the similarity stops there. Ubuntu’s also includes a long, long searchable list of software that can actually be added with the check of a box. In Windows, it takes navigating to websites (often spyware-laden) to find software, sometimes free-of-charge (often provided by the Linux community), often trialware, and in between sometimes and often, malware.

The same philosophies are also applied to updates. If you use Windows, you have Microsoft Update. What does Microsoft Update update? Windows and Office, but generally not ALL of Windows and Office. Just those parts of Windows and Office that are deemed by Microsoft to be in need of “Critical Updates.” Assuming you want all of Microsoft’s updates (some of which can be somewhat malicious), you must actually visit the website to install them. In Ubuntu however, after being notified of updates, you simply update your software… all of your software. New upgrade available for your distribution? Yes, you can upgrade from there, as well. Hell, just imagine upgrade XP to Vista (and probably back again) via automatic updates. Sound like a dream? It is.

Now the point of this wasn’t to say that GNU/Linux is the best at everything. I’m just saying that there’s plenty of stuff out there that tells you where Linux needs improvement, and I just wanted to point out one of the things that it excels at.